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Everyday Use By Alice Walker "Everyday Use" by
Alice Walker, written in 1944, narrates the story
of black family composed of a Mother and her two
daughters: Maggie and Dee. Dee is the oldest one.
A point that we can easily notice as the story is
developed is that Maggie is extremely jealous of
her sister. She believes that her sister has a
better life than she does. The mother is the one
that narrates the story; she makes different
descriptions about both girls. The story has many
examples to explain why Maggie believes that her
sister has a better life.

As we read the story, we
can perceive that the idea of prejudice appears
related to the fact that Maggie feels bad about
her sister. Maggie is extremely jealous of her
sister; she does not like the presence of Dee in
her house. As her mother says in the story, "
Maggie will be nervous until her sister
goes..eying her sister with a mixture of envy and
awe." She believes that her sister gets everything
she wants; all she needs to do is ask somebody for
what she wants. She thinks that, " no is a word
that the world never learned to say to her." From
her point of view, Dee controls the world with her
hands; she can do whatever she wants. Another
example that exposes the reality of Maggie is that
even her mother treats them differently.

Dee is
the perfect girl while Maggie is just a normal
person. Her mother dreams with Dee; even in her
dreams she believes that Dee is perfect. In her
dream, there are only three persons: Herself, Dee,
and the TV guy. "Sometime I dream a dream in which
De and I are suddenly brought together on a TV
program.." those were the words of her mother.
Maggie's name was never mentioned in the dream.
The descriptions that the mother makes of Maggie
and Dee are completely different. " Dee is lighter
than Maggie, with nice hair and fuller figure,"
said the mother.

"Her feet was always neat
looking.." again the mother was referring to Dee.
When she describes Maggie, she uses an analogy of
a lame animal. Even the memories she had from
their past are different. "Sometimes I can still
hear the flames and feel Maggie's arms sticking to
me, her hair smoking and her dress falling off her
in little black papery flakes." Those were her
memories of Maggie's childhood. On the other hand,
the memories of Dee's childhood were all happy.
She described a scene were "Dee is standing off
under the sweet gum tree she used to dig gum out
of.." We can notice that even her mother treats
them differently. We can perceive as the story
advances that there is an idea of prejudice in the
story.

Maggie has motives to believe that her
sister has a better life than she has. Her mother,
who was supposed to treat them equally, has
preference for the older girl. She has plenty of
reasons to feel jealous of her sister; in her
situation, most of the people would feel the same
way she does.